After recent channel sampling efforts, mineral explorer PolarX has uncovered a new extensive gold and silver intercept at surface within a large outcropping vein system at the company’s Humboldt Range gold and silver project in Nevada. Two of the channels combine to form one 69m long mineralised surface interval going 1.1 g/t gold and 7.65 g/t silver.
Channel sampling refers to the method of assessing mineral grades by sampling material collected along a small trench or channel, usually cut across the surface of the earth or across a rockface within an underground mine.
The new discovery sits at one end of a 2.8km-long soil anomaly. In July, PolarX drilled the opposite end of the anomaly in a maiden drill campaign and returned a 9.1m hit grading an impressive 124 g/t gold and 48.6 g/t silver from just 27m downhole. The impressive hit started off well with an even higher-grade interval of 3m at 371 g/t gold and 143.5 g/t silver.
The southern channel of the combined interval returned the best results of 51m at 1.24 grams per tonne gold and 8.3 g/t silver including a 3m interval going 9.62 g/t gold and 60.75 g/t silver. In similar fashion the northern channel delivered 18m running 0.71 g/t gold and 5.82 g/t silver including 7.5m at 1.05 g/t gold.
The company’s exploration took place at the project’s Golden Staircase target and was inspired by strongly anomalous gold results from soil and rock sampling in addition to an observation of intense veining in the target’s outcropping rocks.
Previous rock chip sampling at Golden Staircase has returned up to 4.5 g/t gold and 12.1 g/t silver whilst the company’s mapped soil sampling results make the target glow like an iron in the fire.
So far the company says its newly encountered mineralisation compares favourably to grades mined at the neighbouring 5-million-ounce Florida Canyon gold mine with further channel samples currently underway at the company’s nearby Ridgeline target.
The explorer believes it has got its hands on a ‘Carlin-type’ deposit — a classification of deposit that came to fame in 1961 after a discovery by the legendary gold miner Newmont Mining Corporation in Nevada. Since then, the classification has been popping up all over China with further appearances in Australia, Spain and Russia amongst others. Notably, PolarX’s holdings are only 180km west of Newmont’s original discovery site and the origin of the highly sought-after deposit.
Owning a Carlin-type deposit is no small feat as the Nevada’s Bureau of Mines and Geology estimates the state’s gold endowment from the style of deposit alone is 255 million ounces of gold.
Interestingly, the Fraser Institute, an independent international research organisation, pegs the mineral rich state of Nevada as the third-most attractive jurisdiction in the world for mining investment with Western Australia taking the top spot.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
